[Peace-discuss] The Wrestler and Workers' Rights

[Neil Parthun]

http://www.counterpunch.org/nicolini02132009.html

Having seen The Wrestler twice, I can attest that it is one of the  
best movies I've ever seen.  The entire cast was brilliant and I got  
to see many independent promotions/independent wrestlers who I see  
regularly at wrestling shows.  Interested to see what others think of  
the article and what it says.

Interesting portrayal of the imagery in the film.  "This is not just  
the body of Mickey Rourke or Randy “The Ram” Robinson. It is the face  
and body of working class America. It is the body of every single  
person who has spent his/her life performing labor for shit wages. It  
is the body of everyone who has drunk too much to dull the pain of  
life; who has fucked up their homes and families; who has brutalized  
his/her body just to sustain existence. Randy The Ram is the beaten  
body of labor, but it is also a victorious body. By making his body  
the very product of his labor, Randy The Ram actually liberates  
himself from the fetters of the system where he sells his body to  
others, and he gives his audience, both on the screen and in the  
movie theater, a source of identification, victory, and release.

Randy The Ram puts a face and body on the pounding the laboring class  
takes everyday. He articulates it for us.  He goes to work and gets  
beaten, punched, cut open, scarred, and brutalized in the performance  
of his labor. Yes, pro wrestling is a performance, but the movie is  
also reminding us that all labor is a performance."

Live hard,
      Neil

We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear.
[hunter s. thompson, 1937-2005]

It's after the fact, when it's clear that someone's f---ed up, that  
the s---fountain is invoked to hide it.  Digging through that is why  
I exist.  That moment of finding the thread...It isn't even about  
revenge, although some people seem to think it is...I thrive to bring  
them down not by being a bastard, but by showing the world what,  
exactly, they did or said.  That's why who and what I am isn't  
important to the story.  The story is what's important...The truth  
won't defend itself, though, and bastard or not, it's got me.
[warren ellis, 1968-]

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